Racist Israeli parade flirts with violence in Jerusalem’s Muslim quarter

Groups of young Israeli Jews made their way through Muslim neighborhoods of Jerusalem's Old City on Monday, during an annual march marking Israel's conquest of the eastern part of the city.

Tour buses carrying young ultranationalists lined up near entrances to the Old City, bringing hundreds from outside Jerusalem, including settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Police, who called the procession the “Dance of Flags,” said they had detained a number of people and “acted swiftly to prevent violence, confrontations and provocations.”

Palestinian shopkeepers closed early and police lined the alleys ahead of the march that often becomes a rowdy and sometimes violent procession of ultranationalist Jews.

Police kept a close watch as demonstrators jumped, danced and sang.

Volunteers from the pro-peace organization Standing Together and the Free Jerusalem collective, which works with Palestinians in Jerusalem, tried to position themselves between the marchers and residents to prevent violence.

The march commemorates Jerusalem Day, which marks Israel’s capture of east Jerusalem, including the Old City and its holy sites sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims, in the 1967 Mideast war.

The event threatened to inflame tensions that are rife in the restive city amid nearly 600 days of war in Gaza.

Jerusalem lies at the heart of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. Each sees the city as a key part of their national and religious identity.

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It is one of the most intractable issues of the conflict and is often a flashpoint.

Israel considers all of Jerusalem to be its eternal, undivided capital. Its annexation of east Jerusalem is not internationally recognised.

Palestinians want an independent state with east Jerusalem as its capital.

Last year’s procession, during the first year of the war in Gaza, saw ultranationalist Israelis attack a Palestinian journalist in the Old City and call for violence against Palestinians.

Four years ago, the march helped set off an 11-day war in Gaza.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by HOOK Desk and is published from a syndicated feed AP.)